Swansea City's 2017 transfer business cost them dearly - they must not make the same mistakes | OneFootball

Swansea City's transfer business in the summer of 2017 cost them their Premier League status and had a long-lasting financial impact

After another mid-table Championship finish, Swansea City will turn their attention to bolstering their squad when the transfer window opens.

Like all clubs, Swansea have had their fair share of transfer hits and misses in recent years, and Alan Sheehan will be looking to ensure he starts his reign as permanent head coach with a stronger squad than the Swans did going into the 2024/25 campaign.

While finances will inevitably play a part in Swansea's chances of recruiting quality players, they've shown in the past that splashing the cash doesn't necessarily guarantee success.

The summer transfer window of 2017 saw the Swans spend a lot of money on big-name players, and while supporters were excited about their business at the time, it proved a dire window which has had long-term effects on the club.

Swansea City's 2017 business cost them dearly

After an impressive run of form to avoid relegation from the Premier League during the 2016/17 season, Swansea knew they had to bolster their squad in the summer of 2017 to avoid a similar fate the following campaign.

Losing their two best players, Fernando Llorente and Gylfi Sigurdsson, to Tottenham and Everton respectively only emphasised the need to do business, and Swansea went on a spending spree with a number of high-profile players recruited from both England and abroad.

The most high-profile of them all came in the form of Portugal international Renato Sanches, who joined on a season-long loan from Bayern Munich, just a year after helping his country lift the Euro 2016 crown.

He joined the likes of Wilfried Bony, Sam Clucas, Tammy Abraham and Roque Mesa as the Swans' notable signings, and given the calibre of these signings on paper, coupled with the way Clement's side had finished the previous season, it was shaping up to be an exciting campaign.

However, it proved a dire campaign for Swansea and their supposed star signings, and Clement was sacked in December 2017 and replaced by Carlos Carvalhal, a move which didn't do much to change the club's fortunes, and after seven seasons in the top-flight the Swans were relegated to the Championship after finishing 18th.

Swansea's summer signings will all be remembered as flops, some more than others, with Sanches proving the worst of the bunch given his reputation prior to the move to SA1 and his quite frankly dismal showings in the Premier League.

While Bony had credit in the bank from his first stint at the club, he was a different player the second time around and bagged just two Premier League goals during the 2017/18 campaign, while Abraham was arguably the best of the lot, scoring eight in all competitions before returning to Chelsea at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, Clucas left the Swans after relegation, joining fellow relegated outfit Stoke City after an underwhelming season in South Wales, while Mesa's Swansea career barely got going, struggling for game time before joining Sevilla on loan in January 2018, making it permanent at the end of the season.

With recruitment that poor, it was always going to be a challenge to remain in the Premier League and Swansea found that out the hard way in a summer that won't be remembered fondly by anybody at the club.

Swansea City have learned from the summer of 2017

While Swansea have had some questionable transfer windows since the fateful one of 2017, none have been quite as costly in terms of league status and financial strain.

Since relegation, Swansea have operated on a tight budget compared to even some of their Championship rivals, and their days of splashing the cash on big-money signings are long gone.

The summer of 2017 was the turning point for the Swans, and while the riches of the Premier League ensured they could spend big, their subsequent relegation and tightening of purse strings have shown that it was unsustainable financially for a club of their size.

Swansea have instead tried to adapt a sustainable player trading model, signing talented young players for small fees in the hope that they develop and can be sold for a profit, having success with this approach in the form of Flynn Downes, Joel Piroe and Nathan Wood.

While frustrating for supporters to see the most promising players sold, a club in Swansea's position have to do it to ensure they remain stable financially.

With the transfer window just around the corner, Alan Sheehan and the Swans' hierarchy will have begun planning their business, and it's bound to be a far cry from the disastrous summer of 2017.

Who knows how different things could have been for Swansea had they been shrewder in the transfer market eight years ago, and the long-term effects of their poor recruitment in 2017 are arguably still being felt to this day.